From the Jacket:
The essays in this book endeavour to capture the multifaceted cultural and aesthetic legacy of Rukmini Devi preserved both in India and abroad. They are authored by a wide range of Indian and international scholars, including dance critics, dance administrators, dancers, dance teachers, bureaucrats, and alumni of the world-renowned alumni of the world-renowned Kalakshetra arts institution that Rukmini Devi founded in 1936. The authors delineate specific aspects of her public life as a Bharatnatyam dancer, Theosophist, arts educator, institution builder, teacher, producer of dance dramas, and Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board. The essays also discuss Rukmini Devi's aesthetic vision in relation to history, to tradition, to classicism, her engagement with canonical Sanskrit texts, her creation of ensemble dance-drama productions, and contemporary dance in the United Kingdom.
Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904 - 1986) was a multifaceted personality who worked for many causes, including the revival of theatre arts, crafts, literatures, animal welfare, Theosophy, and art education. She served as an Indian Parliamentarian, moved a bill for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was Chairman of the Animal Welfare Board and received the Prani Mitra award in 1968. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, London, awarded her with the Queen Victoria Silver Medal and The World Federation for the Protection of Animals, the Hague, added her name to their Roll of Honor. Wayne State University, USA, conferred an honorary Doctorate on Rukmini Devi and the Country and City of Los Angeles presented her with Scrolls of Honor. She was also proposed as a candidate to the office of the President of India. But Rukmini Devi declined to contest the elections by reaffirming her commitment to work on behalf of Indian culture and the arts. For her multifaceted contribution to the fields of culture, education and the arts, Rukmini Devi was honoured with numerous national awards, including the Padma Bhushan (1956), Sangeet Natak Akademi (1957), Desikothama (1972), and Kalidasa Samman (1984).
About the Author:
Dr. Avanthi Meduri is a Dance and Performance Studies scholar, Trained since childhood in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, Dr. Meduri works in the field of dance education, women's theatre and performance. She holds a Ph.D. in Performance studies from New York University, and is the Academic and Artistic Director of the Centre for Contemporary Culture, New Delhi. As part of her Ford Foundation post doctoral fellowship in India, Meduri curated Rukmini Devi's photoarchive, creating a traveling exhibition, which she presented in New Delhi, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, Colombo, Kandy, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne. Meduri's book on Rukmini Devi, including a play dealing with her life as a global Indian, is forthcoming. Entitled Birds of the Banyan Tree, the play was presented in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, as part of the Birth Centenary celebrations of Rukmini Devi Arundale.
On 30 December 1935, thirty-one year old Rukmini Devi created history with her performance of Sadir, later known as Bharata Natyam, which had known as Bharata Natyam, which had until then been confined to temple precincts and was the preserve of devadasis. A celebrated artiste and dancer, she was also a Theosophist, a composer of acclaimed dance –drams, an educationist, an animal welfare and child rights activist, and a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. This rich biography illuminates her many lives.
Rukmini’s early life was in the districts of Madras presidency where her father, an engineer, was posted, and it took many dramatic turns: her marriage in 1920 to George Arundale, a Theosophist and family friend, caused public outrage, particularly among the Madras brahmins. She was closely associated with Annie Besant, who became her mentor, and her meeting with Anna Pavlova inspired her to learn dance. Rukmini went on to establish Kalakshetra, an academy of arts, in renowned to this day for its classicism in dance training and performance – a tribute to her skill as an institution builder.
Rukmini revered traditions but did not hesitate to innovate, whenever necessary. She reinterpreted traditional natakas for some of her dance-dramas; she introduced women to nattuvangam, traditionally a male preserve, and adapted the traditionally a male preserve, and adapted the traditional Kerala theatre, the kootambalam, to modern needs of performance at Kalakshetra. Her liberalism was not confined to the arts. Believing in oneness of living creatures, she successfully piloted a bill which became the prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in 1960. She was also president of the Indian Vegetarian Congress in 1957.
Leela Samson draws on the oral evidence of Rukmini’s family, friend, associates and stalwarts of dance music, the reminiscences of such luminaries as Annie Besant, J. Krishnamurti, C.W. Leadbeater, Maria Montessori, C. Rajagopalachari,
Tagore, Pandit Nehru and the Dalai Lama as well as hitherto unseen personal correspondence and photographs. The book offers an intimate and rounded portrait of an extraordinary woman and India, while also celebrating its rich civilization.
Leela Samson is a dancer, a teacher, a writer and a choreographer of Bharata Natyam. She has been deeply influenced by the philosophy and the work of Rukmini Devi. In 1995, she formed a dance group called Spanda, to review the traditional vocabulary of Bharata Natyam-both pure dance and interpretive dance –and its finding were seen as path-breaking by the critics. She has been the subject of two documentary films, Sanchari and The Flowering Tree.
She is the recipient of the Sanskriti and the Sangeet Natak Akademi awards and has been honoured with the Padma shri and Nritya Choodamani. In May 2005, Leela took over as director of the Kalakshetra Foundation. She loves music, books and animals.
In the summer of 1992, I took a sabbatical from work in Delhi to spend a years in Madras researching the life of my guru. The experience was unforgettable. I had the unstinted support of a man I dearly loved and admired. K. Sankara Menon had been Rukmini Devi’s right-hand man from the very inception of the Basant Theosophical High School and the Kalakshetra in Chennai. He was her anchor in all she did arguably her greatest confidant. An aristocrat from an affluent family of Kerala, a man of letters, as comfortable with English and Sanskrit as he was with Malayalam, an advaita scholar, an educationalist and authority on the Montessori method of education, a philosopher whose command over Sanskrit was legendary and whose love of the Bhagavad Gita and discourses on it drew pundits from far and near, he was he pillar of the institute. I cannot imagine Kalakshetra achieving what it did without him. While the inspiration came from Athai, there is no doubt that the smooth running of the Academy, handing of staff and students, suggesting curriculum, managing Rukmini Devi’s affair and the crucial business of maintaining standards in the schools and Arts Academy was solely due to his wise counsel. Why, even Rukmini Devi’s old mother was cared for lovingly by him back home, while she was abroad on her long sojourns .
There were others like Dr D. Padmasani and her brother, M.D. Mani, who between them took care of the hostels, the large estate, the engineering needs the theatre and lights, the gardens and the workers in the institutes. They, too, were an extraordinary pair-motivated and utterly devoted. Dr Padmasani, single, was a tall, stern women who looked after the children, the food, the medical needs and the security in the hostels. Soon after graduating from medical collage she began working as a doctor on the premises. Her family lived just outside the Theosophical Society premises in Uroor. Her father was responsible for acquiring the lands down the coast, to which Kalakshetra later moved from Adyar. Yet Padmansani went home but rarely. She helped Rukmini Devi prepare for her shows in the early years, often travelling with her. A good singer, a talent she had inherited from her father and uncle, she also conducted the bhajanai sessions on Friday evening in the hostel. Over the years, ‘Paddu teacher’ became the most versatile and dependable person on campus. Rukmini Devi had several people like this all with a Theosophical background, who admired her and stood by her throughout her life and beyond, till the end of theirs. They never took a salary, but lived on campus and spent every day of their liver in services to the institute.
Kamala Trilokekar was another quiet worker . Small and gentle of build, Kamala teacher, not unlike Rukmini Devi herself, married a man thirty-five years her senior. A disciple of Annie Besant, C.S. Trilokekar was a professor and later principle of the Madanapalle College started by her. Kamala teacher was a student there. She was form, an orthodox brahmin family; he was a confirmed bachelor and wanted no attachments. He was dedicated to his work. ‘I refused to return to my parents after I finished collage. I did not budge until he married me.’ The silent one of the couple, Kamala teacher was not usually given to such confessions. When she admitted this, I was suitably shocked. All these years we knew her, but never guessed. Sadly, Trilokekar sir’s was an untimely demise and after that Kamala teacher went into deep depression. She had no family and stayed on in Adyar to help Rukmini with the work. However, Radha and Padmanabhan, a young couple who she and her husband had almost adopted, became her became her family and once every few years they came with their children –two boys and two girls, to visit her. Kamala teacher looked after the Montessori teachers training programme and Athai’s office. Uncommunicative, most people feared her. An exception was Sankara Menon. He would draw her out her shell. She was efficient and good to the servants and lived quietly at western end of the hundred-acre campus, while Dr Padmasani help up the eastern end, near the beach.
When I asked questions on my return, some quite pertinent, I had the good counsel of all three of these stalwarts. There was little to look forward to in Kalakshetra without them. They lent the campus their particular grace and wisdom. Sankara Menon sir was the one with unerring memory for detail and nuance. He was also ‘unattached’ and was able to view the journey with the clarity to the seer. It was as though he had put it all behind him and could judge Kalakshetra, Athai’s life and theirs, as though he were an outsider to the party. Paddu teacher and Kamala teacher would shy away from anything they saw as being slightly controversial or ‘not for my ears’ and would say , ‘Ask sir. He remembers the details.’ This amused me no end because I always talked to him first. He would look me in the eye and tell me things which were sometimes shocking, often times sad, but did. Although old and beaten, literally and metaphorically-his story will unfold in the pages ahead them all stored in a memory that defies description . He guided me every step of the way.
My notes were drawn from a collection of Rukmini Devi’s own papers speeches, writing, diaries, theosophical journals and books that were housed in Kalakshetra. The papers needed sorting and this I did, in spite of a rattle snake that lived in them! Sankara Menon spoke on tape about the revival of the dance form, impressions of the early days, the early teachers and concerts and the struggle that they endured. Some observations were not for the book and go into my ‘lessons for life’ diary. Those have helped me understand my job and the people associated with the institute, past and present. While my guru may not have been a sure judge of people, his was the eye of a philosopher-compassionate and true.
When I returned to take over the reins of Kalakshetra thirteen years later, every document I had put aside and stored was missing her diaries eaten by ‘white ants’. All, but those that Sir had permitted me to take for the book! This was returned to the institute, what by due hers.
Born in a family of scholars and exposed to the principles of Theosophy due to her father's association with the Theosophical Movement and its leaders like Annie Besant and others, Rukmini Devi grew up with a sense of freedom of thought and expression. In her teens her friendship with George Arundale, an associate of Besant, culminated in their marriage, which in turn earned her the friendship of great artists and scholars, one among them being Anna Pavlove, the world renowned Ballerina.
Her attraction to the classical western dance slowly veered her interest towards Bharatanatya, the classical dance of South India, which she mastered even after starting to learn it in her early thirties. This led her to establishing the Kalakshetra at Chennai, the internationally acclaimed school of dance, music and allied arts. Many stalwarts in these artistic fields came to help her nurture this institution. This institution also endeavoured to inculcate the traditional values in its wards.
Rukmini Devi and Bharatanatya is all about her childhood, her marriage to Arundale, her life as a dancer, the founding of Kalakshetra, her pioneering work in the field of art as well as for the welfare of animals. Her association with and the recognition she won from internationally famous artists, scholars and world leaders are revealed through text and photographs in this book..
Many of Rukmini Devi's admirers all over the world expressed a wish to write a biography of her many faceted personality. It is unfortunate that such a book never came out during her life time. She often mentioned to me about her photographs and their importance of being preserved for posterity; though I have been aware of this, I could not find the time somehow to put them together. It has been possible for me now to do this work after I took sanyasa, when I became free from other business pressures.
I am not a writer, but many people who were intimately connected with Rukmini Devi have either passed on, have either passed on, or have retired; therefore I am left with this work to complete.
Smt Rukmini Devi has been a phenomenon in the cultural history of South India; a most beautiful woman of her time, with grace and dignity befitting a cultured family. She created history in the early 1930s with her debut as an accomplished Bharata Natya dancer at the age of 30!
I have had the good fortune to work with her for almost 50 years till the end of her life in 1986. Day biography should be written about her epoch making life. I have tried in this book an illustrative biography covering 50 years of her outstanding artistic work through these photographs.
I came into contact with Rukmini Devi, when I was studying in the Besant Memorial School at the young age of 12, not realising that it was she who would become the catalyst in bringing out my talents in art. Mr. Conrad Woldring was my teacher in art and photography in my school days from 1937 to 1941, through whom I met her for the first time became intimately connected with her through him. He was an outstanding man, a young theosophist from Holland, who came all the way from his own country to help her work. After he passed away (electrocuted) in 1941, Rukmini Devi saw me through school and college, after which I came to assist her Kalakshetra, working as her personal assistant, in connection with her art activity and as a lay-out man and photographer. During this time I started photographing her work and continued to record all her dance dramas till 1976.
In the days of Conrad woldring there was no colour photography He was adept in black and white pictures, which he produced by proper tonal rendition and contrast. This was to be achieved by proper lighting, akin to daylight conditions, that is, sun as the main light source (like a big solar spotlight) and the sky light as a fill in for the shadows. This lighting technique, was called "available light" photography. The photographs of Rukmini Devi were exposed into the slow black and white film with a main spot light and a fill in light for shadows, (like in the available light technique) small aperture of the lens to increase the depth of field and enhance the overall sharpness. It was remarkable in those days a Rollei camera (Rollei flex) he used was able to make remarkable sharpness in the negatives produced, so that big blowup could be made with least grain.
It is not so easy to expose black and white films, as tonal rendition;
Contrast has to be brought about in single black and white colour. Conrad was adept as a photographer with his only 75 mm Rollei (as Hasseblad, Linholf cameras were not available in those days.) One camera with a tripod and no dark room (as outside photo labs took care of developing and printing) was his philosophy. This brought about his artistic merit in Rukmini Devi's early pictures done 60 years ago.
Besides photography, he also wrote music for children. His "Bambino" composed for children was appreciated by no less a person than Dr. Montessori, who was a pioneer in children's education. His sketches and caricatures were superb too, just right for reproduction in those days, as half tones were difficult to reproduce without art paper.
During his time in India book layouts and ad layouts were nonexistent, therefore his design and layout for the dance programmes of Rukmini Devi enhanced the artistic value of the presentation. His early contribution of design books for the Theosophical Society and Rukmini Devi were very valuable indeed. I am grateful to him and Rukmini Devi for giving me an opportunity to learn photography, layout and designing (during my games period) as he was free only in the evening (and I disliked games, anyway!)
This is the first time that most of her early photographs, the negatives of which were passed on to me by conrad Woldring in 1941, along with those I made of her work from 1941 to 1976, are being published in a book form in two volumes. Volume I deals with Rukmini Devi as a young dancer and her early work and Volume II deals with the dance dramas produced by her during well over 30 years. I have endeavoured to preserve the continuity of her work from her early days till 1986, when she passed away from our midst.
These negatives taken during the 50 years are about 5000 in number and have been well preserved over the years for posterity, thanks to the advanced technical means available today.
I have chose articles by Betsan Coats, James Cousins, K, Chandrasekaran,
Sarada Hoffman, Barbara Sellon, Dr. Arundale, Se Muthia who closely associated with Rukmini Devi, and those by Rukmini Devi herself, written earlier on different occasions.
I wish to thank Ms Lakshmi Venkatraman, who helped me to edit and proof read the text, Mr. Prem Kumar of Rapid Scan and Mr. Arun Verghese of Lokwani Hallmark Press who cooperated in printing these volumes.
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